


You Don't Have to Run Anymore

by oddgit



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Blood, Car Accident, Crying, Lots of it, M/M, Major character death - Freeform, Sadness, Soooo sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-05
Updated: 2017-06-05
Packaged: 2018-11-09 05:56:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11098320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oddgit/pseuds/oddgit
Summary: He let out a breath… “You don’t have to run anymore.”





	You Don't Have to Run Anymore

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to M_E_Lover for all her beta work and all her encouragement. She literally always makes my fics better and puts up with my doubts about all my fics haha.

Harold hit the ground with a hard thud that was quickly followed by a deafening crash… _that couldn’t be good_. He thought absently. It took a few moments for it to register. For him to fully grasp and understand what just happened.

He looked up at the dark sky above him and blinked as the sprinkling rain fell on his face. He took in a deep raspy breath that made him cough and he immediately regretted the action as pain shot through his chest.

That’s when he tasted the blood in his mouth. He reflexively tried to sit up but thought better of it when he couldn’t seem to move without great discomfort. Next, he heard multiple gunshots.

Then John was there. Falling to his knees next to him. His eyes were wide with concern and he had that look on his face that Harold could identify from a mile away. The expression that he got when he was worried… but wanted to protect Harold and act like everything was okay.

When Harold finally looked down, he saw that everything was not okay.

“Oh…” Was all that he could choke out. Then everything came back to him in flashes. A car chase with Samaritan operatives close behind… Someone pulled out in front of them… causing John to swerve… a normal move John had done a million times… but this time it was raining and the road was wet… and the tires skidded… causing the car to flip.

Harold’s body was trapped underneath the car. The door frame crushing his upper body. Harold felt his eyelids wanting to close.

“Hey…” John gently put his hand to his partner’s face, “you’re gonna be okay… just please stay awake.”

“John…” Harold gasped… his breath was coming short now. “John… you have… to get out of here…” Harold pleaded.

“No…” John shook his head definitively. “No way.”

“John…” Harold closed his eyes and groaned in pain.

John got up and put his hands underneath the car. He squatted, started to pull up on the car, screamed as he desperately tried to pick it up and off of Harold… but it didn’t budge.

“John…” Harold pleaded again… “Please… go **.** ” Tears streaked down his face mingling with the blood that was slowly trickling from his lips.

John’s head fell in defeat. He closed his eyes and let out a sob. But then cleared his throat and knelt next to his partner again, “I’m not leaving you.” He grabbed Harold’s hand firmly and looked into his eyes.

Harold smiled desolately and looked at his partner, lifting his hand and touching it gently to John’s cheek, leaving streaks of blood on his face. “John…” Harold whispered, “don’t… don’t be what… they made you…” He caressed his John’s face. “You’re… a good… man.”

John shook his head, his tears starting to flow… mixing in with the steady raindrops falling onto Harold’s face. “No… please…”

Harold tried to smile… “So… this is what it feels like… to…” The corners of his mouth fell as he let out his final breath…

The light slowly left Harold’s eyes... John’s eyes fell closed; his head fell onto his partner’s chest. The rain continued to pour down and the world went on like nothing had happened… like John hadn’t just lost the only thing in the world that meant something to him…

Like his world hadn’t just ended when Harold’s heart stopped.

#

When the police officers showed up to clean up the wreckage… Fusco found them first… John sitting with his back against the car… his knees propped up to his chest… still holding onto Harold’s lifeless hand.

Shaw and Root arrived… finally able to pry John away from Harold’s body after they had to physically pull him up and practically drag him to the car.

He complied, zombie-like.

He went to Harold’s apartment and downed most of a fifth of Jim Bean until he passed out… clutching onto one of Harold’s suit jackets.

Shaw found him in the morning… hungover and barely able to stay conscious. He could barely put a sentence together. He was inconsolable as he sat against the wall in Harold’s walk-in closet. Shaw left him there after dropping a bottle of aspirin and a few bottled waters next to him on the floor.

#

They buried Harold two days later. Root, Shaw, and Fusco were standing over the grave.

They all quietly stared at the tombstone…

The Machine had sent Root Harold’s real last name in an encrypted text file a day after his death.

They hadn’t had a number since.

The machine was mourning the loss of her father as much as the rest of them were.

“Gonna miss ya, glasses…” Fusco broke the deafening silence.

Root just made her way slowly over to the tombstone and gently rested a book against it. _Gone with the Wind_.

Shaw didn’t say anything and just cleared her throat, nodding to both Root and Fusco.

Right as they were all about the leave, they heard a barely audible whisper, “Wait.”

Reese emerged from the shadows of the nearby trees and approached the group. He didn’t reek of alcohol… something Shaw was extremely surprised by. Figuring that he must have stayed sober just for this…

John moved directly in front of the tomb that now held his world. He let out a breath… “You don’t have to run anymore.”

John opened his eyes and let out a shaky long breath. He grabbed something out of his pocket and held it encased in his hand.

He knelt down, taking another long and harsh breath… let his head rest on the cold stone for a moment… He lifted up the item he had in his hand… Harold’s glasses… he laid them on top of the tombstone. “I’m sorry…” He whispered. “I’ll always love you.”

He stood up, looked at the three people standing behind him and nodded at them in acknowledgment. “You know how to get ahold of me.”

He turned and walked away.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry, I know... super sad. But this idea came to me after I teared up at the ending of the movie "Logan" a few weeks ago. So there are a few similarities between the two if you've seen the movie. 
> 
> Oh, and Root's placing of "Gone With the Wind" is a nod to her and Harold's father/daughter type relationship.


End file.
